RVNG announces album from The Body

The duo's fourth album has been made in collaboration with The Haxan Cloak.

RVNG Intl chief Matt Werth has unveiled his label's first release of 2014: a collaborative album from The Body and The Haxan Cloak called I Shall Die Here.

The Body is Lee Buford and Chip King, a duo who blend doom metal, industrial and experimental music. They hail from the same city as Werth—Little Rock, Arkansas—though they are based in Portland these days. When RA profiled RVNG as its label of the month in January, Werth highlighted the "cerebral dance sound" that ran through the albums he released in 2013 from Maxmillion Dunbar, Stellar OM Source, Blondes and Gardland. I Shall Die Here brings that run of records to a ferocious halt, with six tracks of harsh sonics and abrasive textures featuring track titles like "Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain," "To Carry The Seeds Of Death Within Me" and "Darkness Surrounds Us."

It's The Body's fourth album, and their first with The Haxan Cloak, real name Bobby Krlic. According to a press release, "the tried and true sound of The Body is cut to pieces [by Krlic], mutilated by process and re-animated in a spectral state." You can listen to a clip for album track "Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain" via the YouTube player below:

Tracklist01. To Carry The Seeds Of Death Within Me
02. Alone All The Way
03. The Night Knows No Dawn
04. Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain
05. Our Souls Were Clean
06. Darkness Surrounds Us

8 comments

Given that a significant majority of extreme metal/electronica hybrids turn out to be, at best, mere curios, "I Shall Die Here" is particularly remarkable in that not not only does it transcend genre boundaries, it's also considerably greater than the sum of its parts. Bobby Krlic's production technique approaches The Body's doom metal in the same way Logos tackled grime on "Cold Mission", deconstructing it then scattering the component parts throughout a headspace that absolutely howls with menace. What your average Black Sabbath/Candlemass fan would make of this terrifying racket is a moot point, or maybe it isn't the point at all.

Review /The Body - I Shall Die Here on Rvng Intl.The Body are outsiders in metal, a world obsessed with subgenres that doesn't always take kindly to those daring to colour outside the lines. Bassist and vocalist Chip King and drummer Lee Buford, both based in Portland, flirted with avant-garde structures on last year's stunning EP Master, We Peris..